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| THE LIGHTHOUSE |
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you are here: Decor Tips | DIY: Hanging Herb Garden |
DIY: Hanging Herb Garden
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Christiaan's Hanging Herb Garden
This is ideal for people living in small flats or apartments where garden space is limited. Keen cooks and foodies will love it as well. Using just a few meters of old guttering or PVC pipe, a few licks of chalkboard paint, and suspended with some rope
or cabling; these hanging pipes make the perfect living herb racks for outside your kitchen door or window.
What you’ll need:
2,5m x 110mm PVC pipe
110mm PVC end-caps
PVC Weld glue
Jigsaw (with fine toothed blades)
Drill with 3-5mm bit
Chalk paint
1x Paintbrush
7m plastic coated steel cabling
10 x Crimps
Step 1:
Cut your PVC pipe into equal lengths of your choosing. We prefer 500mm x 5 for a nice proportion.
Step 2:
Draw 2 straight (level) lines with a permanent marker about 10cm apart along the full length of the pipe. These are your cutting guides. Secure the pipe to a table or bench with a clamp, and cut along the guides using a jigsaw. Make sure that the blades of the jigsaw have very fine teeth otherwise the plastic will melt from the friction.
Handy tip... Use the piece you cut out as a template for the remaining pipes so that they are all the same size and shape.
Step 3:
Glue the end caps on to each end and allow to dry. Handy tip… once it has been cut through, the pipe will curl up a bit as the tension has been released. Use the discarded cut-out section to wedge into the gap and force the pipe open while you
glue on the end caps.
Step 4:
Drill a few drainage holes along the bottom of each tube.
Step 5:
Paint the tubes with chalkboard paint - you will need at least two coats.
Handy tip: sandpaper the tube before painting so that the paint grips to the surface well.
Step 6:
Put a layer of leica (baked clay pebbles) in the bottom of each tube – this is better than crushed stone for drainage as it is much lighter and will not weigh down your hanging garden.
Step 7:
Place your selected herbs into the tubes and fill the gaps with potting soil.
Handy tip: don’t use herbs or veg that will grow too tall and obscure the row above it, or that will bear very heavy fruit unless you are able to hang your garden from a re-enforced structure.
Step 8:
To hang your tubes, fold a 3,5m length of plastic-coated steel cable in half, and crimp at 5x 30cm intervals from the folded end. This will create tear-drop shaped openings for you to position your tubes into. Hang the top end from a sturdy support
or nail securely into the wall.
Step 9:
Use coloured chalk to write the names of your herbs onto each tube, and wash off and replace as you change crops.
Step 10:
Water your herbs lightly as needed.
Handy tip: If the soil is dry or the leaves are limp – it’s ready for water.
Contacts:
Cape Contours
T : 021 788 1202
www.capecontours.co.za
Find Cape Contours on Facebook
Follow Cape Contours on Twitter: @
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